Where's the Free Will Baptists???

rev.hewett said:

I am a free will baptist with a long heritage of southern and free will baptist family and friends. I just went a long way through a lot of different threads and realized I haven't seen any posts from FWB believers.

Well... I are one! Through my ministries, I have had a fun time "clearing up" things that a lot of people think we believe. Granted, I'm not a public affairs guy for my denomination and do not speak on behalf of the denomination. One of the best parts (and worst) is there are a great slew of different beliefs about specific things. There are FWB that do and do not believe in speaking in tongues. There are some that do snake handling. There are some that are more Wesleyan than they are Arminian.

Anyway ... I may not have the answer, but I can try!

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I could be mistaken, but don't most baptists hold to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith?

Do you have another confession your denomination holds to?

bsd058 said:

I could be mistaken, but don't most baptists hold to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith?

Do you have another confession your denomination holds to?

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There's really no way to broadly define Baptists as a whole apart from what are generally seen as historical "Baptist distinctives". One of the defining elements of the broad Baptist tradition is its diversity on, well, just about everything.

-CryptoLutheran

ViaCrucis said:

There's really no way to broadly define Baptists as a whole apart from what are generally seen as historical "Baptist distinctives". One of the defining elements of the broad Baptist tradition is its diversity on, well, just about everything.

-CryptoLutheran

Click to expand...

Bingo.

And where I'm not an authority, I enjoy good discussion...

Not all Baptists hold to the 2nd London Confession of Faith of 1689. That was primarily an English Confession.

WHile the Philadelphia Baptist Assoicatioin Confession of Faith reads almost identical, there are diferences.

After 1833 and the split between Northern And Southern States mainly over the slavery issue, there was issued the New Hampshire Baptist Confession of Faith of 1833.

This was pretty much the standard until 1858 when James P. Boyce wrote "The Abstract of Principles" which was unoffically the Confession of Faith for most, if not all, Southern Baptists.

However, in 1834, there was issued this: "TREATISE ON THE FAITH AND PRACTICE OF THE FREE WILL BAPTISTS".

It was again reiterated and confirmed in 1948.

Source

I have not studied it throughly, but from a brief look, it basically comfirmes what most Calvinist Baptists have always said.

God Bless

Till all are one.